Daily weighing may be key to losing weight

Researchers examined the self-weighing patterns of 1,042 adults (78 percent male, 90 percent white, average age 47) and whether there were differences in weight change by these self-weighing patterns over 12 months. They analyzed remotely transmitted self-weighing data from Health eHeart, an ongoing prospective e-cohort study. The participants weighed themselves at home as they normally would, without interventions, guidance or weight-loss incentives from researchers.

Researchers identified several categories of self-weighing adults, from those that weighed themselves daily or almost daily to adults who never used at-home scales.

They found that people who never weighed themselves or only weighed once a week did not lose weight in the following year. Those that weighed themselves six to seven times a week had a significant weight loss (1.7 percent) in 12 months.

Monitoring your behavior or body weight may increase your awareness of how changing behaviors can affect weight loss. These findings support the central role of self-monitoring in changing behavior and increasing success in any attempt to better manage weight, according to study authors from the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing and University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine.